Follow Techotopia on Twitter

On-line Guides
All Guides
eBook Store
iOS / Android
Linux for Beginners
Office Productivity
Linux Installation
Linux Security
Linux Utilities
Linux Virtualization
Linux Kernel
System/Network Admin
Programming
Scripting Languages
Development Tools
Web Development
GUI Toolkits/Desktop
Databases
Mail Systems
openSolaris
Eclipse Documentation
Techotopia.com
Virtuatopia.com
Answertopia.com

How To Guides
Virtualization
General System Admin
Linux Security
Linux Filesystems
Web Servers
Graphics & Desktop
PC Hardware
Windows
Problem Solutions
Privacy Policy

  




 

Nautilus Preferences

Use the File Management Preferences dialog to customize the file manager to suit your requirements and preferences.

To display the File Management Preferences dialog, choose Edit->Preferences. You can also access this dialog directly from the top panel Menubar by choosing Desktop->Preferences->File Management.

You can set preferences in the following categories:

  • The default settings for views.

  • The behavior of files and folders, executable text files, and Trash.

  • The information that is displayed in icon captions and the date format.

  • The columns that appear in the list view and their order.

  • Preview options to improve the performance of the file manager.

Views Preferences

You can specify a default view, and select sort options and display options. You can also specify default settings for icon views and list views.

To specify your default view settings, choose Edit->Preferences. Click on the Views tab to display the Views tabbed section.

Table 6.9, “Views Preferences” lists the views preferences that you can modify.

Table 6.9. Views Preferences

Dialog Element

Description

View new folders using

Select the default view for folders. When you open a folder, the folder is displayed in the view that you select. This can be either the icon view or the list view.

Arrange items

Select the characteristic by which you want to sort the items in folders that are displayed in this view.

Sort folders before files

Select this option to list folders before files when you sort a folder.

Show hidden and backup files

Select this option to display files that are normally not shown in folders. For more on hidden files, see the section called “Hidden Files”.

Icon View Default zoom level

There are two settings, one for the icon view and one for the list view. Select the default zoom level for folders that are displayed in this view. The zoom level specifies the size of items in a view.

Use compact layout

Select this option to arrange the items in icon view so that the items in the folder are closer to each other.

Text beside icons

Select this option to place the icon captions for items beside the icon rather than under the icon.

Show only folders

Select this option to display only folders in the Tree in the side pane.

Behavior Preferences

To set your preferences for files and folders, choose Edit->Preferences. Click on the Behavior tab to display the Behavior tabbed section.

Table 6.10, “File and Folder Behavior Preferences” lists the preferences that you can modify for files and folders.

Table 6.10. File and Folder Behavior Preferences

Option

Description

Single click to activate items

Select this option to perform the default action for an item when you click on the item. When this option is selected, and you point to an item, the title of the item is underlined.

Double click to activate items

Select this option to perform the default action for an item when you double-click on the item.

Always open in browser windows

Select this option to use nautilus in browser mode rather than spatial mode. Selecting this lets you browse your files and folders in the same window, otherwise you will navigate your files and folders as objects.

Always use text entry location bar.

Select this option to force Nautilus to use the Location bar in location field mode instead of the button bar mode by default. For more on using the location bar see the section called “Using the Location Bar”.

Run executable text files when they are clicked

Select this option to run an text executable file when you choose the file. An executable text file is a text file that can execute, that is, a shell script.

View executable text files when they are clicked

Select this option to display the contents of an executable text file when you choose the executable text file.

Ask each time

Select this option to display a dialog when you choose an executable text file. The dialog asks whether you want to execute the file or display the file.

Ask before emptying the Trash or deleting files

Select this option to display a confirmation message before Trash is emptied, or files are deleted. Leave this selected unless you have good reason not to.

Include a Delete command that bypasses Trash

Select this option to add a Delete menu item to the following menus:

  • The Edit menu.

  • The popup menu that is displayed when you right-click on a file, folder, or desktop object.

When you select an item then choose the Delete menu item, the item is deleted from your file system immediately. There is no way to recover a deleted file. Do not select this unless you have good reason to.

Display Preferences

An icon caption displays the name of a file or folder in an icon view. The icon caption also includes three additional items of information on the file or folder. The additional information is displayed after the file name. Normally only one item of information is visible, but when you zoom in on an icon, more of the information is displayed. You can modify what additional information is displayed in icon captions.

To set your preferences for icon captions, choose Edit->Preferences. Click on the Display tab to display the Display tabbed section.

Select the items of information that you want to display in the icon caption from the three drop-down lists. Select the first item from the first drop-down list, select the second item from the second drop-down list, and so on. The following table describes the items of information that you can select:

Information

Description

Size

Choose this option to display the size of the item.

Type

Choose this option to display the description of the MIME type of the item.

Date modified

Choose this option to display the last modification date of the item.

Date accessed

Choose this option to display the date that the item was last accessed.

Owner

Choose this option to display the owner of the item.

Group

Choose this option to display the group to which the item belongs.

Permissions

Choose this option to display the permissions of the item as three sets of three characters, for example -rwxrw-r--.

Octal permissions

Choose this option to display the permissions of the item in octal notation, for example 764.

MIME type

Choose this option to display the MIME type of the item.

None

Choose this option to display no information for the item.

The date Format option lets you choose how the date is displayed throughout Nautilus.

List Columns Preferences

You can specify what information is displayed in list view in file manager windows. You can specify which columns are displayed in list view, and the order in which the columns are displayed.

To set your preferences for list columns, choose Edit->Preferences. Click on the List Columns tab to display the List Columns tabbed section.

To specify a column to display in list view, select the option that corresponds to the column, then click on the Show button. To remove a column from the list view, select the option that corresponds to the column, then click on the Hide button.

Use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to specify the position of columns in list view.

To use the default columns and column positions, click on the Use Default button.

The following table describes the columns that you can display:

Information

Description

Name

Choose this option to display the name of the item.

Size

Choose this option to display the size of the item.

Type

Choose this option to display the description of the MIME type of the item from the File Types and Programs preference tool.

Date Modified

Choose this option to display the last modification date of the item.

Date Accessed

Choose this option to display the date that the item was last accessed.

Group

Choose this option to display the group to which the item belongs.

MIME type

Choose this option to display the MIME type of the item.

Octal Permissions

Choose this option to display the permissions of the item in octal notation, for example 764.

Owner

Choose this option to display the owner of the item.

Permissions

Choose this option to display the permissions of the item as three sets of three characters, for example -rwxrw-r--.

Preview Preferences

The file manager include some file preview features. The preview features can affect the speed with which the file manager responds to your requests. You can modify the behavior of some of these features to improve the speed of the file manager. For each preview preference, you can select one of the options described in the following table:

Option

Description

Always

Performs the action for both local files, and files on other file systems.

Local Files Only

Performs the action for local files only.

Never

Never performs the action.

To set your preview preferences, choose Edit->Preferences. Click on the Preview tab dialog to display the Preview tabbed section.

Table 6.11, “Preview Preferences” lists the preview preferences that you can modify.

Table 6.11. Preview Preferences

Dialog Element

Description

Show text in icons

Select an option to specify when to preview the content of text files in the icon that represents the file.

Show thumbnails

Select an option to specify when to show thumbnails of image files. The file manager stores the thumbnail files for each folder in a .thumbnails directory in the user's Home Folder.

Only for files smaller than

Specify the maximum file size for files for which the file manager creates a thumbnail.

Preview sound files

Select an option to specify when to preview sound files.

Count number of items

Select an option to specify when to show the number of items in folders. When in icon view, you might need to increase your zoom level to see the number of items in each folder.


Previous
Navigating Remote Servers
Desktop User Guide Next
Extending Nautilus

 
 
  Published under the terms of the GNU General Public License Design by Interspire